thomas frenzel + katja schweiker + michael fakesch: “blackbird”.

I love, love, love this project. Love. Daddy love. Daddy love long time. Anytime the visual and audio worlds come together in the hands of designers like these, the result is always spectacular. Exploring the same idea of visually interpreting music as the amazing animator and jazz musician Michal Levy, the video for “Blackbird” is a “collaborative music visualization” created by multimedia designer and information architect Thomas Frenzel and graphic designer Katja Schweiker.

I really dig the smoothness of the sound peppered with the sudden visual shifts, accenting the electronic interruptions in the song. If it was over-done, it would be jarring and annoying, but done skillfully like this it’s impossible to stop watching. Gorgeous. In the words of it’s creators, “it’s about trying and failure—trying to leave behind, trying to live in a forward-turned way, trying not to resign or surrender, trying to get aware.”

Frenzel’s work extends into editorial and interface design, and I love everything he’s done. Lots of it is text-based, treating words and lettering in new and interesting ways; frosting, scribbling, spray-painting text over sleek, modern backgrounds. His interface designs are seamless but visually arresting – unlike some new-wave interface designers, he thankfully doesn’t sacrifice usability in order to seem avant garde.

Equally brilliant is the song itself, and just the music in general, of Michael Fakesch. The “Blackbird” video was created as part of his latest project, “VIDOS”, a vid anthology inspired by his last album “DOS”. Some of the hottest motion and graphic designers in the world are lined up to work on more videos based on songs from “DOS”, and I’m totally hyped now to get my hands on the DVD. Here’s a promo video for “VIDOS”:

The whole project has the same sort of high-design forefront feel of Matt Pyke’s upcoming hi-def soundscape project Advanced Beauty, which I’m not afraid to say, will be the hottest shit ever. (The world premiere of “Advanced Beauty” is going down May 9 at Lovebytes 2008 – the digital and new art conference in Sheffield, England. In some frenzied, unrealistic moments I seriously thought of flying to the UK to see it, but then life got in the way.) So I wasn’t surprised to find that one of my fave designers and Advanced Beauty contributors Mate Steinforth has also worked with Michael Fakesch, on a short vid called “Color Robot”: